The Most Diabolical, Yet Concealed, Nazi [PHIL-OSOPHY]

This week is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the scene of the murder of 1.1 million Jews perpetrated by the Nazi regime. It's upsetting that as the world marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, anti-Semitic assaults continued to rise, yet reaffirming our commitment to confronting the hatred and venom of it wherever appears.

This week is a good time to talk about one of the most abominable Nazi beasts you probably have never heard of. How is it possible to conceal oneself without being noticed or remembered? That mystery is unraveled in the true story of SS Nazi general Hans Kammler, one of the most wretched demons who had escaped being tracked down.

Think of him as being the planner, and that's why the Holocaust happened the way it did. Kammler identified Auschwitz as the place to become the Nazi's deadliest killing camp. He ordered it stretched out to hold a quarter of a million souls. Kammler thought up and installed Auschwitz's gas chambers and crematoria. And he played an essential part in creating the SS slave labor system where he made regular visits to the camp to oversee his work.

His evil extended not just to Auschwitz, but to camps throughout the Third Reich, making him responsible for perhaps more deaths than any other Nazi figure. If Heinrich Himmler was the architect of the Holocaust, Kammler was its engineer.

Sadly, Kammler's role at Auschwitz or in the Holocaust went virtually unrevealed because he successfully faked his own suicide. But behind that contrived suicide was a deal between Kammler and the Allied Forces: in return for his life, Kammler would deliver the Germans' highly advanced rocket research and team, and other invaluable technology.

Kammler was declared dead after the war, but the aide who testified to Kammler's supposed "suicide" never produced his dog tags or any other proof of death. This is just part of the history of one of the worst Nazi war criminals you've probably never heard of.

May the memory of those who perished be immortal and never forgotten.

Phil Paleologos is the host of The Phil Paleologos Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Contact him at phil@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @PhilPaleologos. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.